KIP is providing education, health, and economic development resources for refugees who have been forcibly displaced and are among the most marginalised communities in Africa - as well as for the rural poor in their Tanzanian host community.

KIP has established three Community Internet Centers (CICs) - in a secondary school at the Mtabila Refugee Camp, the Kasulu Folk Development College, and the Kasulu Teacher Training College. The communities at each site have contributed labour and other resources to the project. A steering committee with local residents, including representatives from the refugee camp and the Kasulu colleges, is making decisions about how all three CICs are used.

Kasulu Folk Development College (KFDC) was the first site in the community to have computer instruction. Their programme helped train an initial group of residents in basic computer skills. The College hosts 2-week long training workshops where local residents and refugees learned computer basics. Stella Daniels, a local woman who initially learned computer skills at KFDC, has been certified as a Cisco Network Academy instructor and now teaches in the community.

In Mtabila, the Mtabila Internet Committee (MIC) mobilised volunteers to construct a building adjacent to other school buildings for the CIC. The building is powered by 48 solar panels in 2 adjustable arrays that can track the sun to maximum solar exposure, and a very-small-aperture-terminal (VSAT) to receive Internet access via satellite.

Kasulu Teacher Training College (KTTC) has refurbished classroom facilities to host a CIC as well as a Cisco Academy. A biogas system using cow manure from their herd generates 70% of the electricity needed to power the labs. It also provides fertilizer for the crops the college raises to feed its staff and students. The CIC is being used to train future teachers to use computers and the Internet, for ICDL certification and as an Internet café. Revenue from training programmes helps support the cost of Internet access, maintenance and ongoing operations.

According to the organisers, in less than two years, KIP demonstrated a new model for bringing education, economic development, and health resources to a refugee and host community. While the partners in the project are continuing to learn about the impact that ICTs have in this rural community and to understand emerging promising practices, KIP is already being demonstrated as a model for rural development by COSTECH, the Tanzanian Commission on Science and Technology. The partnership is working on plans to replicate this work with other refugee communities.

Conflict, Technology, Education.

The project aims to enhance secondary and professional education, HIV/AIDS education, and establish income-generating projects through training in ICT skills. The organisers believe that the project is developing much needed resources in these economically poor communities.